The Present Application relates to a connector assembly that utilizes capacitive coupling to effect signal transfer between two circuits and which utilizes two distinct dielectric materials, one solid and one liquid, with the liquid material being held within a reservoir.
Conventionally, there is known a connector in which a terminal held in one housing and a terminal held in another housing are arranged spatially apart from each other, as a connector for realizing the capacity-coupling between terminals. An example of such a connector is shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-289309, in which a dielectric portion is arranged between two sets of opposing terminals.
Although such a connector is capable of transmitting electrical signals, it has been discovered that the application of a dielectric material to the terminals is not always done perfectly. That is, there remains often surface roughness in the form of asperities, which prevents close and intimate surface to surface contact. The surface roughness leads to minute, on the level of microscopic scale gaps between the dielectric material and its opposing terminal or conductor. Air can enter these gaps and affect the capacitance that occurs between the two terminals of the connector assembly. The air deleteriously interposes itself between the terminals and the dielectric material, thereby deteriorating the capacitance between the terminals.
Further, a large number of minute asperities exist on surfaces of the terminals and the dielectric material making those surfaces rough so that it is difficult to obtain close, intimate face-to-face contact between the terminals and the dielectric material. Hence, a large number of minute gaps are microscopically formed therebetween, even when the terminals and the dielectric are contacted with each other and air may enter these gaps. Therefore, there is a realized concern that the capacitance between the terminals deteriorates by the presence of air in these gaps.
The Present Application provides a solution to this problem and an advantage over known connectors that utilize capacitive coupling for signal transmission.